State Mental Hospitals

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Perspectives in the Closing of Mental Hospitals

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction and an Overview of the Closing Scene

      • Paul I. Ahmed, Stanley C. Plog

      Pages 3-8

   3. Historical Factors Affecting the Closing of State Hospitals

      • Milton Greenblatt

      Pages 9-20

   4. The Case for Closing of the Hospitals

      • Werner M. Mendel

      Pages 21-29

   5. The Case Against Closing of State Hospitals

      • Stephen Rachlin

      Pages 31-44

   6. The Alternative Care Is Not There

      • Paul R. Dingman

      Pages 45-61

3. The Impact of the Closing

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 63-63

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   2. The Impact of the Closing of DeWitt State Hospital

      • Samuel Weiner

      Pages 65-81

   3. When They Closed the Doors at Modesto

      • Roberta A. Marlowe

      Pages 83-95

   4. The Posttransfer Fate of Relocated Patients

      • Elizabeth W. Markson, John H. Cumming

      Pages 97-109

   5. Community-Based Sheltered Care

      • Steven P. Segal, Uri Aviram

      Pages 111-124

4. Issues in Community Care and the Closing of Hospitals

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 125-125

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   2. Some Major Issues in the Closing of the Hospitals

      • Milton Greenblatt, Elizabeth Glazier

      Pages 127-139

   3. Moving Patients Out of Hospitals—In Whose Interest?

      • Jonas Robitscher

      Pages 141-175

   4. Is the Community Ready?

      • Hugh G. Lafave, Frederic Grunberg, Richard W. Woodhouse, Leo Barrington

      Pages 177-203

   5. Whither the State Hospital?

      • Paul I. Ahmed

      Pages 205-212

5. Back Matter

   Pages 213-219

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The 1970s constitute the decade of decisions about state mental hospi­ tals! These large, monolithic, and seemingly impervious institutions are being phased out in some states and their basic purpose for exis­ tence is being seriously questioned in almost all others. Since 1970, hospitals have closed in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wisconsin. Simi­ lar closings have occurred in several provinces of Canada, in Great Britain, and in some European countries. The purpose of the book is to examine the multiple issues growing out of the hospital closings: Why are the state hospitals being closed? What is the impact of closings on patients, hospital staff, and the communities where the hospitals are located? What has been the impact on the communities receiving these patients? What are the trends for the future, in terms of numbers of closings and types of hospitals which will remain? Is there a role for the state hospital in the care of the mentally ill or is it an obsolete institution? The impetus for the closings is diverse. The discovery and wide­ spread use of the tranquilizing drugs in the early 1950s allowed more patients to be returned to the community-under medication.

• care
• drugs
• hospital
• hospitals
• patients

• Southeastern University, USA

  Paul I. Ahmed

• Plog Research, Inc., Reseda (Los Angeles), USA

  Stanley C. Plog

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